Chapter 19 #2
Crouching beside the bleeding male, I examined the bloody sinew twisted around bone where his arm had been ripped from his body.
When I’d worked with Gaeldric, he’d had me copy the freezing rune into the surface of the water itself, but I couldn’t exactly form a rune on the uneven shreds of flesh.
Glancing down, I saw that Adriel’s blood had already soaked into the dirt. It would have to do.
Willing my hands to stop shaking, I studied the drawing on the page until I’d burned it into my mind.
I started from the center, infusing every line with the intent to heal. I pictured the male healthy and whole, just as dour as the first time we’d met. I remembered what it had been like to spar with him in Adraeis — how he moved with such strength and ease.
Finishing the concentric triangles, I started on the intricate pattern of curved lines that formed little half-moons around the perimeter.
With each purposeful stroke, I poured my magic into the earth until my hands shook with exhaustion.
A sharp hiss to my right drew my attention, and I glanced over to find Kaden staring wide-eyed at his friend.
Adriel’s mutilated shoulder was no longer gushing blood. The ground beneath him was completely soaked, but I’d staunched the flow.
Steeling myself, I allowed my gaze to drift to the spot where the bone had protruded. But rather than finding only torn, mangled skin, his shoulder curved into an arm that was not made of flesh and bone.
The limb was a riot of earthy greens and golds — its form a perfect replica of what his arm had looked like.
Sorsha was staring at Adriel as though she’d seen a ghost, but an astonished grin was quickly spreading across Kaden’s face.
“Ancient clay from the banks of the Adraeis,” he murmured.
I jerked my head to look at him. “What?”
Kaden’s throat bobbed. “The clay that made him.” His eyes found mine. “What did you do?”
“N-nothing,” I stammered, shaking my head in disbelief. “The rune was just supposed to stop the . . .”
I trailed off, realizing as I said it that I had imbued the rune with the intent to heal , not just staunch the flow of blood.
Glancing down at the rune, I read the meaning below the image. Indeed, the exact translation was “mending of wounds.”
“You healed him,” said Kaden, staring down at his friend lying in the blood-soaked dirt. “Like calls to like. One forged from clay commands the earth, and when called upon to heal one of its own . . .”
Kaden trailed off. Something strange was happening to Adriel’s new arm. The clay had taken on a luminous quality, sparkling in the moonlight.
His arm was . . . glowing .
Then the clay began to change. Mottled swirls of green and gold faded into an even tone that matched Adriel’s pale skin. Wet clay became flesh and bone until his arm was exactly as it had been.
“Unbelievable,” Sorsha whispered.
“You saved him,” Kaden croaked. “Mended him.”
“I . . .” But I didn’t know what to say as I stared at the rune I’d drawn.
Then the royal guard began to stir. He winced as he turned his head from side to side, finally opening his eyes.
Pain gave way to disbelief as he looked down at his outstretched hand. I watched as he flexed his fingers one by one, as if testing to be sure they were truly there.
“Lyra healed you,” said Kaden in a hoarse voice.
Adriel whipped his head toward the prince.
“She restored your arm with magic.”
The royal guard’s brows lifted, those hazel eyes burning fiercely as they settled on me. “You —”
He looked back at his arm, twisting it from side to side as though he still could not believe his eyes. His gaze shifted back to me. “Thank you.”
I nodded.
Kaden and Adriel locked eyes, and the royal guard’s face crumpled. He emitted a sound I’d never heard him make — one I wasn’t sure I’d heard anyone make. Not quite like that.
It was ragged and unpracticed, like metal scraping over rocks.
Adriel was . . . laughing .
Kaden joined in with a low chuckle, and Sorsha shot me a look of bemused relief before breaking into a grin.
Since my poor mare had become a meal for the soul eaters, I had no choice but to ride with Kaden. I was too tired to object when he lifted me onto his horse and climbed on behind me, though I did manage a growl when he pulled me against his chest and slid his thighs flush against mine.
We rode in silence for another few hours before Kaden announced that we should stop for the night. I startled against him, having nodded off in the saddle, and his grip tightened around my waist when I made to slide off the horse’s back.
“Easy, little huntress,” he rumbled. “The ground is uneven here, and you are exhausted.”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
“It will be much harder to travel if you break your ankle dismounting in the dark,” he warned.
I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t deny my own fatigue. Mending Adriel had depleted my magic and left me bone tired. That, combined with the energy I’d expended fighting the soul eaters, and I was lucky I was still upright.
Though I wanted to refuse Kaden’s help, I didn’t object when he slid out of the saddle and wrapped his hands around my waist. The tips of my breasts skimmed his chest as he lowered me to the ground, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the unexpected contact.
“I cannot ever repay you for what you did today,” he said, his quiet words nearly lost in the dark.
I stiffened when he reached for me but held still as he brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ear. The gesture was so tender and natural that I felt a lump rise in my throat.
No one had touched me like that in years. Not since my mother.
“You continue to astound me, Lyra, and I am not easily astounded.”
I swallowed.
We were standing so close, the velvet darkness wrapped around us. Maybe it was my exhaustion or the relief at surviving the soul eaters’ attack, but I had the inexplicable urge to close the distance between us and brush my lips against his.
Instead, I pulled out of his grasp — stumbling when my foot found a divot in the ground. Strong fingers closed around my biceps, stopping my fall, and a maddening chuckle sounded in the dark.
Annoyed with myself, I yanked my arm out of his grip and strode away to arrange my bedroll as far from the demon prince as I could get.
We didn’t dare make a fire. Not with the looming threat of soul eaters in the vicinity and the fear of attracting Alfrigg’s patrols.
Instead of a hot meal, we settled for a few sticks of dried meat and stale bread from our packs. Adriel volunteered to take the first watch, and I flopped down onto my bedroll, my body desperate for rest.
Even lying on the cold, hard ground in a forest teeming with monsters, I didn’t think I’d have any trouble sleeping tonight. That is until Kaden flung his bedroll down next to mine and began shucking off his boots.
“What are you doing?” I snapped, deeply unsettled by my earlier urge to kiss him.
“What does it look like?” he asked, a note of amusement in his voice despite the weariness that matched my own.
“There is an entire forest,” I said, gesturing at the stands of dead trees that surrounded us.
“Ah, but I wish to be close to you, little huntress.” He lowered his voice. “The soul eaters are not the only creatures that prowl these woods. Many are not so bold as to attack while their quarry is awake.”
“I don’t need your protection,” I groused, sliding beneath the blankets and trying not to think of how close I’d come to a fate worse than death at the hands of the soul eater.
“Perhaps it is I who needs protecting.”
Then he was moving, his body blotting out the moonlight as he rolled on top of me. He held most of his weight on his elbows, but his arms formed a cage around my head, his warmth seeping through the blankets.
Kaden’s eyes gleamed in the dark, wicked and silver, and my breath hitched as he bent his head, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear.
I shivered, heart racing, as he rolled his hips into mine — just enough for me to feel his hardness.
A surge of liquid heat bloomed between my legs, my core already throbbing with need .
Gods, what was wrong with me? This was the male who’d taken everything from me. My family. My freedom.
Kaden was despicable, and yet I couldn’t deny that I wanted him.
Then his nose brushed the tender flesh beneath my ear, and I stifled a groan as little tingles of pleasure erupted all over my skin.
“Or,” he rumbled, breath tickling my neck as he pressed a kiss to my throat, “maybe I just prefer to fall asleep with your breathy little moans ringing in my ears.”
A surge of anger flared in my gut, hot and sobering. I shoved him off me with a growl, sending him sprawling onto his bedroll.
“Then you may have trouble sleeping, Your Highness, because you will never hear that again.”
Kaden’s low chuckle rumbled in the dark, raising goosebumps along my arms. “Never is a long time, but I am a patient male.” There was a rustle of fabric as he arranged his own blankets, close enough that his thigh brushed against my own.
“Sleep well, little huntress. Tomorrow will come earlier than you think.”